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Home office tax deductions - Bobo

Posted: Sep 26, 2012

Tax deduction when you work at home is definitely worth it. My friend is an accountant and anything done to improve your house is deductible (including crazy things like carpet cleaning, window cleaning). I even deducted new appliances and furniture and carpets ( in other rooms).

You can only take a percentage - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
You can only take the same percentage that your room devoted solely to work occupies. In other words, if it takes up 15% of your house you can only take 15% of the cost of repairs.

Hope you never get an audit... - horrible

[ In Reply To ..]
First of all, the majority of audits performed by the IRS are home office audits.

In your situation, that is tax fraud. Appliances, furniture and carpets from other rooms being deducted is going to catch up with you. You wont have to worry about the MT after your name, you will have a whole bunch of numbers.

Right! - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I used to have my taxes done professionally when I was an IC (and paid hundreds of dollars to do so). You can't just go by what you think someone said. My tax guys said the IRS is really cracking down on these types of home office deductions. I took them only under the scrutiny of professionals.

Tax deductions - Bobo

[ In Reply To ..]
Well, I guess the certified accountant who does my taxes will be sharing a cell with me.

Don't know why this is comforting - YD

[ In Reply To ..]
First responses to your post are correct. Nothing that is purchased for other rooms can be deducted for a home office. In fact, the room used for a home office cannot be completely deducted unless it is used exclusively for home office. If only partial use as office, then you have to calculate the square footage of the room physically occupied by office equipment and divide that by the total square footage of your house to get the percentage of expenses you can legally deduct. If your CPA has truly told you what you state, you need a different CPA.

You can - deduct

[ In Reply To ..]
home improvements, though at a partial deduction such as the carpet. I do believe the appliances have to be the energy star appliances, and that would also be a partial deduction, but that is just under your regular deductions, not business, unless you bought a refrigerator for your office. if the furniture is specifically for your office, you can deduct 100%, nothing if for another part of the house. You can also deduct partial costs for heating and cooling bills, telephone bills and internet costs, at the percentage of them used for your office.

Deduct - Bobo

[ In Reply To ..]
Sounds like you know your stuff unlike the person who likes to throw the term tax fraud around. Yes, I remember now, my appliance had to be an energy saver, and it was.

Not so much anymore - StillOnTheBeach

[ In Reply To ..]
My former CPA ('former' having nothing to do with his competence as an accountant) said with so many people telecommuting nowadays, the IRS understands this, and the home office deduction is nowhere near the audit magnet it once was.

the deduction amount is so - high

[ In Reply To ..]
that I never have enough to deduct, no matter what I do. I deduct for my phone, net, equipment depreciation value, paper, pens, etc, etc and I never have enough to make it to the amount needed. I am always told, well if you had more then you would get that money back. I don't understand why there is an amount, if it is a business expense, it should be just that a business expese and thus be deducted. Otherwise, I am essentially paying to work. Well I am paying to work b/c I pay for my computer, all equipment, phone, internet, electric everything I need to do my job. I am not compensated from Nuance or on my taxes for it.

That's the boat I am in - never have enough deductions

[ In Reply To ..]
The standard deduction is $3700 per person in your household, I believe, and if you do not have that much (or a little more) in itemized deductions, it does not make sense to go to the trouble to file your return with itemized deductions and all the documentation that requires.

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